Still Don't Like the Kidneys
by Mariadoria
Summary: While escaping from a factory full of deadly chemicals, the Doctor is shot by what is a seemingly harmless weapon. It couldn't be furthur from the truth.


"DOCTOR!" shrieked Yaz, sprinting for her life away from the gun toting maniac intent on shooting her. "HURRY UP AND GET OUT HERE!" Graham and Ryan were standing at the door, ready to run the second that the Doctor finished wiring the building to explode and destroy the galaxy altering chemicals housed inside it. The last thing they wanted was for the chemicals to be sent outside of the factory. The deadly substance would kill everyone on the planet within hours.

A very pleasant thing to avoid, really.

"One minute!" called the Doctor, frantically pulling out sparking wiring and jamming them into other sockets. Usually, she would use her sonic, but thanks to Krutin, their enemy of the month, it was fried to an unusable crisp. She was left running on pure intelligence and adrenaline, knowing that if she failed the consequences could be disastrous. "I'm nearly there."

"You'll never get away, Doctor," growled Krutin, appearing suddenly behind the Doctor and pointing his gun and her. She didn't stop moving the wires into different sockets. It would only take ten more seconds. Then she could run away from the monster of a man behind her.

"That's what you think," she panted.

"That's what I know."

And the gun went off.

A yellow bolt flew through the air and hit the Doctor in her back. Surprisingly, it did nothing other than make her feel slightly dizzy. Frowning, the Doctor put the last wire in its place and heard the telltale click of an explosion ready to blow. She didn't have time to sit around and think about why the large, intimidating weapon didn't work. If she wasn't out of this building in a minute, she would be toast.

"Sorry, mate. Got to get a shift on." She sprinted for the door, before whirling around and fixing him with a stern look. "If you're going to shoot someone, you should really get a better gun, yeah? Bye!" Krutin merely smirked at her. It was unnerving, to say in the least. Like he knew something that she didn't. She whizzed down the corridor, yelling at her friends, "Get to the TARDIS! Now!" They took off, closely followed by the Doctor, piling into the TARDIS just as the factory lit up with brilliant flames.

The Doctor yanked on the lever that would take them away. The TARDIS began it's telltale groaning and wheezing, the crystals surrounding the console undulating in sync with the time rotor. They all let out the breath they'd been holding.

"That was a close one, wasn't it?" grinned the Doctor, pulling her hair away from her face. "Let's wait awhile before we do something like that again, shall we?" She laughed, remembering Krutin's useless gun. "I got shot and it did nothing. How useless does a bad guy have to be to shoot a bolt of light at you? Honestly."

"I think that's a good idea that we wait a while," said Graham, his face still white. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a very flat sandwich. "It's happened again. My sandwich has been squished." The Doctor snickered, before doubling over in pain as a wave of agony began attacking her.

"Ah!" She clutched her stomach, where most of the pain was coming from. It was a very familiar pain, too, slowly spreading over the rest of her body. A pain that she was unable to stop. "No, no! This can't be happening. Not here. I haven't lived like this for long enough."

"What can't be happening?" asked a very concerned Ryan. "What did that Krutin guy do to you?"

"I need you guys to stay calm, alright. Promise me that. I don't have much time left." As she gasped this out, a golden glow began to show from inside her hands. She felt a singular tear slide down her cheek. "I'm going to change. A lot. But I'll still be me."

"What's going on?" said Yaz, stepping towards the Doctor. Said Time Lord put out a hand, warning Yaz from coming too close.

"Don't get too close. I don't want to hurt you."

"Doc?" asked Graham.

"I guess that gun did do something, huh," she mused. The pain became too much, and that familiar whistling noise began to fill her ears. She was really going to miss this body. She hadn't even lived in it for a year, and yet she was regenerating already. Fate really wasn't on her side at the moment.

The light exploded outwards, pouring out of her hands and head. Her three companions scrambled backwards to get away from the incredible heat of the blinding golden light, eyes wide with shock.

Just as the Doctor reached the tipping point, something began to feel different. Like she was going backwards, not forwards. The pain and light intensified, reaching a crescendo, before it stopped altogether.

Right.

She was a he again. Shame, really. He was just beginning to enjoy being female. This regeneration did feel strangely familiar, though. Like he'd been in it before. That wasn't possible, though.

"Who are you, and what have you done with the Doctor?" demanded Yaz, bravely stepping forward. "What happened to her?"

"Yaz, it's me!" He was going to continue speaking, but the voice that he spoke with was exceedingly familiar, and very Scottish. "No, this can't be happening. Tell me, what do I look like?"

"I'm not telling you anything until you tell me what you've done with the Doctor."

"This is serious. Tell me what I look like, _now."_

"Alright. Calm down, old man. You've got grey hair, greyish blue eyes and a beak like nose. You're also Scottish. Is that enough for you?"

"Give me your phone." Without waiting for her to pull it out of her pocket, the Doctor shoved his hand in it and grabbed her phone. He easily bypassed the four digit code and opened up the camera app with increasingly desperate movements.

Staring back at him was the face of his previous regeneration.

"Still don't like the colour of my kidneys."

* * *

 _Hello. This popped into my head and I couldn't get it out. I just had to write it. This is the start to a short story I am going to be writing sporadically. It's just a little side project that I'll be coming back to every now and then._

 _Also, an update on Before He Fell: The reason I haven't updated it because I need to plan out the rest of the story, and I am not going to post a crap chapter that I am not happy with. It will be up in around three and a half weeks, as I am going on holiday with no internet._

 _Sincerely,  
Mariadoria_


End file.
